


In The Heart of The Jungle

by Braimetrash04



Category: game of thrones
Genre: Jon Snow is adopted and Catelyn isn't an asshole to him, Other, major character deaths
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-25
Updated: 2019-11-27
Packaged: 2020-05-19 16:46:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19360819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Braimetrash04/pseuds/Braimetrash04
Summary: Brienne is an archaeologist and Jaime runs a private security firm. Both of them are hired by an anonymous contractor but the plane transporting them to the site crashes leaving tem as the only survivors. Now they have to navigate their way through a dangerous jungle in hopes of finding a way to get back home





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I suck at summaries but you all get the jist right?

Brienne Tarth had been hired plenty of times by private contractors, but never has a job been shrouded in this much secrecy. The site itself was a secret and so was her employer. This put Brienne at a disadvantage because usually she could do some research on the site and could get an idea if what she was in for, now she's virtually going in blind and she hated that. Still she let her imagination run wild with possible site locations, maybe she'll be going far south or far east-

"Have you finished packing yet?" Catelyn Stark asked Brienne startling her out her thoughts. 

Brienne looked around and saw the older woman's head peeking through the doorway as she spoke. Her thin fingers were holding into the doorframe as she looked in and Brienne could see the loose waves of her long auburn hair and Tully blue sundress that complimented her blue eyes as she waited for an answer. 

Almost," she replied finally properly snapping out of her daze.

Catelyn Stark was the closest thing Brienne had to a mother and rest of the Starks were the closest thing she had to family after the deaths of her biological family members. The Starks had welcomed Brienne into their lives with open arms and for that she was thankful; it was also nice to have people who care about you to come back to each time, seeing as Brienne traveled a lot because of her job, sometimes months on end.

Catelyn stepped into the room and busied herself with helping Brienne pack all if her remaining necessities.

"I was thinking about the site just now," Brienne said as they worked, "about where it could be."

"You still don't know," Catelyn replied.

"No, and who ever it is that's funding it is being awfully secretive about it."

"Secret site, secret billionaire boss. What's with all this secrecy?"

"I don't know, but it would have to be pretty important to put this much effort into hiding it."

"I don't like this."

"What, the job? Or the fact that I'm leaving you alone to deal with Sansa and Arya now that all the boys are up north visiting Benjen for the summer?" Brienne said with a smirk.

"Both," Catelyn replied with a chuckle, “it's just, you've only been back three months and now this, that's not a lot of time between jobs.”

“It's not but I swear I'm taking a break after this one.”  
“Well, the boys asked me to send you their best.”

Brienne smiled at the thought of all the Stark boys huddled around their uncle’s cellphone, Robb, 15 with his mother’s curly red hair and blue eyes, Bran, 8 with his father’s dark hair and brown eyes, Little Rickon, 6 with his curly blonde hair that he got from neither parent and Jon, also 15 who had been adopted by Catelyn and her husband Eddard as a babe after the death of his mother Lyanna, Eddard’s sister, he was a Stark through and through, dark hair, dark eyes and an ever brooding visage.

They soon finished and went down to load the car with Brienne's things; it was only a couple of bags filled with Brienne's basic necessities, nothing she couldn't carry, but the two Stark girls insisted on loading them in the trunk themselves. Sansa who was 12 was a spitting image of her mother: red hair, blue eyes and high cheek bones, where as Arya who was 10 looked more like her late father, Eddark: dark hair and dark solemn eyes. Brienne had known the girls and had been a part of their lives for three years now and thought of them as little sisters, stubborn, clever little sisters who would bicker like old married couples at every chance they got. Speaking of which, the girls spent the entire car ride to the airport bickering over some nonsense they would surely forget about by dinner.

They decided to get an early start because the private air base they were to drive to was a three hour drive from Stark Family estate Winterfell, no doubt it was owned by the mysterious businessman that hired Brienne. By the time they arrived it was midday and everyone was anxious. 

Catelyn slowly pulled to a stop infront of the gate and a man in a custom uniform stood inside of the security booth. Catelyn and Brienne rolled down their windows and waited for him to speak.

"State your business," he ordered."

"I'm just dropping her off," Catelyn replied cooly. 

"Name?"

"Brienne Tarth." 

After she introduced herself the man pulled out a check list and started looking. He then picked up a phone and called into the base just to double check.

"Ok ma'am your name checks out but only you are permitted to enter the base," he said moments later. 

Catelyn and the girls got out of the car to help Brienne get her things and say their final goodbyes. Sansa and Arya threw themselves into her arms multiple times, each trying to get the better hug.  
“Alright you two, that's enough,” Catelyn said clearly done with the girls’ antics.

The girls climbed into the car but stuck their heads through the back windows to see Brienne and their mother exchange hugs infront of the car.

“You'll call us as soon as you can?” Catelyn asked Brienne.

“Absolutely. I promise.”

“Good, now all you have to do is don't die.”

The two women laughed and hugged again. As if on cue the guard opened the gates and waited for Brienne to enter. As soon as he was inside Brienne turned to watch the Starks pull out of the driveway and return home.  
The air base itself was like any other private base, people in custom uniforms scurried back and forth loading equipment and other supplies onto planes and such. Brienne was taking it all in when she was approached by a shorter woman with brown hair, dark sunglasses, a neck tattoo of a kraken and wore a black and red pilot’s jumpsuit and boots.

“Tarth?” she said a he stood infront of Brienne.

“Yes, that's me,” Brienne replied.

“I'm Captain Yara Greyjoy and it's my job to escort you to the briefing room along with the rest of the crew.”  
By that point the two women were walking into a large building at the heart of the base.

“You don't sound too excited about that.”

“I'm a pilot ma'am, not an errand girl. They could've gotten someone else to come get you.”

“Who are they ?”

“Don't know exactly but from what I've seen, some private security firm is calling all the shots.”

“Right,” Brienne exhales defeatedly, still no answers.

They came to a stop and Yara left Brienne to enter the room. Inside there were severe all men in security uniforms and a few regular people in civilian wear.  
At the head of the room stood a tall man with blond hair and piercing green eyes. He looked directly at Brienne as she entered with such anger you would think she interrupted a meeting between world leaders.

“And you are?” the man asked her.

“Tarth.”

“The archaeologist. Have a seat, we can start the briefing now that you're here.”  
Brienne put her two backpacks down and took a seat at the table. 

“Now before you ask me Tarth, no I do not know where we are going. The only people that posess that information is the pilot,” which meant Yara knew exactly where they were headed, “but as you can imagine, they themselves are sworn to secrecy.” 

Ofcourse they are.

Now the man addressed the entirety of the room.

“My name is Jaime Lannister and I'm in charge of security therefore it is my job to keep all of you alive. You all know Tarth is the archaeologist. Here we also have Podrick Payne, Geologist, Samwell Tarly, he's a biologist and Osha Wildling our cartographer and navigator. You've already met Yara, our pilot.”

If not for the difference in sir names Tarly and Payne could have been brothers, both were short and stout with dark brown and kind smiles. Osha however had a head of hair so unruly that Brienne couldn't tell if it was a dingy blonde or an unkempt brown, gods it could have even been auburn for all she knew. 

Lannister continued,

“We’re going to a secure location in the middle of gods know where to do gods know what and for gods know who, so do me a favour and don't make this job any harder than it needs to be, alright. Wheels up in 10,” and with that everyone started to clear out. 

“Some briefing,” Brienne thought.

40 minutes later they were strapped into Yara’s giant plane. The security team seemed call and professional, Tarly as Payne were practically bursting with excitement and Osha had fallen asleep the second she finished strapping herself in. Brienne how ever tried her best to get her bearings by looking out the windows and keeping track of land marks, so far they had passed zero recognisable land marks and Brienne was just as clueless as everyone. Lannister who was sitting right next to her spent his time checking and cleaning his weapons, the suddenly the plane shook.  
“Probably just turbulence,” Jaime suggested.

But then there was an explosion and the entire plane shook violently.

“OXYGEN MASKS ON NOW AND HOLD ON TO SOMETHING!” Jaime shouted. 

There was a second explosion and the plane went crashing down. 

Brienne saw everything happen in flashes. Everyone was screaming and holding onto the seat straps that held them against the wall, things were flying around and the back of the plane was on fire. 

The next thing she knew they were on a beach and there was an incessant ringing in Brienne’s ears. There was pain all over her body and as she tried to get up he saw that the plane had been ripped apart. There were bodies everywhere, some of them she recognised and some of them were too burnt or torn to shreds for her to tell who they were. Standing up only increased the level of pain but she knew she had to get away for the crash site. She turned to run off the beach and into the wilderness but but stopped the second she hear a man’s voice.

“HELP!” he screamed, “OVER HERE!” 

“HOLD ON!” Brienne shouted back as she dragged her body towards him.

As she got closer she realised the man was Jaime Lannister the head of security and he was pinned underneath some debris. Despite the pain Brienne managed to all of it off. As the last piece of debris was pulled off she could see that his right hand had been badly burnt. Brienne pulled him onto his feet and yelled that they needed to get as far away from the plane as quick as possible. They dragged themselves through the sandy beach and into the grassy woodlands away from the fiery crash. Brienne and Jaime turned around and watched in horror as what was left of the plane exploded one last time.


	2. Chapter 2

24 hours ago Jaime Lannister was drunk off his ass in the middle of a filthy old tavern where he was being coerced by the only two people in the world who gave a rats ass about him.

"Go on," Tyrion said with a slur of his words, "you can't back down now." 

His little brother was always trying to get him to do stupid shit but this time he might actually succeed.

"Go on, don't be a pussy," said Bronn, their best friend. Bronn was the type of guy that would make a good sell sword like in the old days, he was ruthless and loyal and couldn't resist money when offered. 

"Go on brother, pick one," Tyrion added pointing indiscreetly at a group of women to his left. 

"Well it's not like picking something to eat from a menu, is it? Jaime reasoned. 

"BULLSHIT," shouted Bronn, "that's exactly what it's like." 

They all laughed at this over a table of about 4 bottles of wine, 3 pints of ale each and shot glasses of one thing or the other, and that was after the waitress had cleared the table for the first time. Gods they were plastered. Even Tyrion, who, despite his small stature, could hold more liquor than a cow and not even lose his footing and easily out drink anyone in the place, was so fucked up that he had double vision and could barely speak.  
Jaime stared at the girls to his right, true they were beautiful, but they weren't his type. But then, what exactly was his type, he'd been with one person his entire life and that had been toxic and unhealthy, how could he possibly know what interested him in a woman and what didn't. So Jaime decided to take the leap. He's choose a girl to chat up and eventually take home knowing full well they'd let him bed them. After all, he was handsome and well built and even charming when he need to be. One flash of that devilish smile, a slight whip of his blond hair, a bat of his eyelashes around those lovely green eyes of his and a lighthearted joke was all it would take. 

“Alright. Alright,” he said giving up, “but I won't take her home, I'll get a room in a motel or something.” 

“Great. That works for me,” Tyrion and Bronn said respectively.

It didn't take long for Jaime to work his magic on one of the women. Minutes after he approached the brunette, whose name he couldn't remember, they were in his car on their way to a motel. By the time Jaime’s driver pulled into the motel parking lot Jaime was already spent from the quick blow job the woman had given him on the way and in no mood for company any more. So he had his driver take them back to the pub to drop the girl off then take him home. The next morning Jaime woke up properly hung over and ready to completely dismantle his alarm clock. 9:15 it said, and he had to be at the air base by 11. So he got up, showered, dressed and hastily ate the plate of cold breakfast his maid had brought for him and headed out. 

The private base itself was huge and Jaime couldn't help but get annoyed at the rich bastard who owned it. What kind of cunt spends millions on an exhibition, hiring the best team and buying the best equipment while remaining anonymous. But he understood, most of the escort jobs he worked almost always went to shit and if anything went wrong their employer wouldn't have to deal with any of it. Smart. A major cunt, but smart. 

Somewhere around midday Jaime found himself in a room full of his men and a group of people who were much smarter than him. The biologist, cartographer and geologist had arrived on time but the last person they needed was yet to arrive. One trait Jaime got from his father was his absolute hatred for tardiness. When everyone else in the room busied themselves with small talk and what not, Jaime combed through the very thin and ultimately useless dossier containing details about their mission. It had the names of the crew, the plain objective and more bullshit about the boss’ anonymity. 

Suddenly someone entered the room. A woman stood infront of the door, “ Tarth” the archaeologist he presumed. When he read her file the only photo it possessed was a head shot and based on that photo alone Jaime would never had guessed that the woman in it was a good inch taller than himself, with broader shoulders and incredibly long legs. Unfortunate features for a woman to possess, but for some reason he wondered what Tyrion would think of her, not that it mattered. 

The briefing commenced and “brief” it was, the whole thing was about 8 minutes tops and 10 minutes later they were wheels up. Jaime had spent the whole plane ride checking and cleaning his assortment of weapons and ammunition, even though he had already dove that the day before, just to give himself something to focus on. He wished Yara could give them an ETA at some point but he knew that would give away their location and destroy the shroud of mystery that covered their whole mission. Then there was a jolt. “Turbulence” he told everyone, but then there was and explosion and he had to move quick. He told everyone on board the put on their oxygen masks and braced for impact. When Jaime woke up his ears were ringing and his right arm was pinned under some wreckage. His hand itself hurt more than his arm and he suspected it had sustained a different type of injury from the rest of the limb because the weight of the wreckage was equally distributed along his arm. Jaime tried to pull his arm out but soon realised that in order to do so he would have to lift the pieces if wreckage off his body to free his hand. But it was all to heavy. Jaime looked around in time to see Brienne stagger onto her feet. He called to her and she ran over, seconds later he was free and they were running away from the crash on the beach, however they turned just in time to see the plane’s final explosion. It was big and loud and Jaime knew that it would be impossible for anyone on the beach to survive it. 

Hours after the crash Brienne and Jaime found themselves in middle of the jungle sitting by the stream Brienne had found as she cleaned and bandaged Jaime’s well burnt hand. It hurt like a bitch but Jaime had a high pain tolerance as a result of being in the army so he pushed through it. Brienne had gone back to the beach after the fire had died down and started looking for survivors and supplies. She only found the latter. When she reached Jaime sitting by the stream with a miraculously well maintained first aid kit her eyes were red with tears. 

“They're all dead,” she said before tending to Jaime’s wound. 

They sat in silence reflecting on the horrors of the day even after she was done.  
“We need to get out of here,” Jaime said breaking the silence. 

“And go where? We don't even know where we are.” Brienne replied hoarsely.

“Exactly, we don't, which means we have no idea of knowing if a boat or another plane will pass, and thanks to Greyjoy’s piloting, we have no way of knowing if we’re on an island or just sine isolated part of a continent, either way, we need to get to higher ground to get a better look at our surroundings.” 

“We don't know what's even in the rest of this jungle,it's too dangerous and we’re hurt.” 

“We also don't have any flares to send a signal,” 

“But-,”

“Gods stop objecting you wench and listen!”

Brienne stared at Jaime, mouth agape and very angry. 

“Good,” a Jaime said as Brienne remained silent, “look, we don't have any food and foraging through the jungle can lead us to some, we can also follow the stream on our way up to keep our water supply but we really cannot stay here any longer than a night. We’ll leave in the morning alright?” 

Brienne didn't answer. 

“Alright?” Jaime asked again. 

“Piss off,” Brienne replied defiantly. 

“I'll take that as a yes. Now I'll assume you don't know how to build a fire so I'll just tell you what we need and you can get them.”

“What makes you think I don't know how to build a fire?”  
“Do you?” 

“Ofcourse I do.”

Jaime watched as Brienne limped around gathering the materials for the fire with about as much gracefulness as a drunken elephant. She was limping, the crash had done some damage to one of her legs, the left one from the way she was dragging it, and Jaime could see from the way she winced as she crouched that her ribs were injured as well. She was in pain, but like him she never complained. 

A few minutes later the fire was built and Brienne and Jaime were basking in its warmth then Brienne spoke.

“If you ever call me wench again, I'll break that burnt hand right off,” then she layed down with her back to him and went to sleep.

Jaime could tell this early on that they would be getting on each other’s nerves a lot more onn this journey of theirs.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't posted in some time, I've been really busy. Please enjoy

As Brienne woke up the pain in her leg shot through her body. She had throughly checked her leg but in her fit of anger at Jaime she had completely forgot to elevate the injured leg which resulted in some tissue swelling around the wound on her left shin but it was nothing she couldn't handle. Brienne looked around for the first aid kit and to her dismay It was right infront of Jaime's sleeping form. Brienne dragged herself around the fire of their little camp, wincing every time her ribs pained her, and grabbed a hold of the kit as silently as possible, not wanting to rouse Jaime from his slumber. “The more he sleeps, the less he talks,” she thought. But she had thought too soon, for the second she turned around to return to where she slept Jaime’s eyes were blinking open and he was becoming more aware of his immediate surroundings which were dirt and Brienne’s, long and broad back. Brienne hadn't known he had woken up so when his left hand reached out and touched her she basically jumped out of her skin. 

“Sorry. I wasn't thinking,” Jaime said hoarsely. He too had woken up in pain but there was nothing to be done about his hand so bore it. 

“It's fine. You scared me for a moment is all,” Brienne said trying to regulate her breathing again. 

Jaime sat up and watched as Brienne, who didn't bother with moving anymore used the scissors from the dirt aid kit to cut down the length of her left pant leg. When she tore the material away they both looked to her leg and saw that along her shin was swollen and covered in purple and yellow bruises. Brienne turned slightly to watch Jaime’s reaction, his eyebrows were furrowed and he winced slightly.

“It's not broken, just fractured,” Brienne said to reassure him.

“How do you know for sure?” Jaime asked unconvinced. 

“I've broken bones before. This one definitely isn't broken.”

Jaime’s eyebrows shot up at her words but from because of the certainty of her words he chose to believe her.

“What about your ribs?” Jaime asked after a moment of silence.

“There's something in here for pain, but there's not enough for the both of us. You can take it.”

“No I can't.” 

“Yes you can. Your hand is in far worse shape than my legs or ribs. So shut up and take it.”

Jaime looked inside the kit and saw that there was about a single dose of Milk of the Poppy. He thanked her but chose not to drink it, instead leaving it for later. 

“You should at least bandage them,” he suggested.

“With what exactly?” Brienne asked.

“With the pant leg. Cut it into wide strips and you've got a few bandages.”

So that is what Brienne did. Every step of the way was just as painful as the last even though Jaime had helped her with his one hand. He took longer than he would have with hi right hand and fumbled like a nervous old man, not used to using that specific appendage, but he did his best. Jaime stared at her bruised ribs the entire time. Brienne cringed internally at this. Not many men had seen the skin he'd seen let alone touched it, bruised or otherwise. They did a good job all things considered, even though the bandages were made of stripped cargo pants and she was now naked from the upper thigh and downward on her left leg. 

“I’ll be back,” Jaime said before trudging through the woods.

He was gone and now Brienne could think. She knew of Jaime Lannister, or more so the Lannister family in general. Catelyn had told her about the feud between the Starks and the Lannisters and how, even though it could never be proven, Catelyn was certain that the Lannisters has something to do with her husband being murdered, him and his driver shot to death in his car. Brienne knew that the patriarch of the Lannister family was Tywin Lannister, a cold and calculating man who, according to Catelyn, had played a pivotal role in many of Westeros’ most famous atrocities. She knew that his daughter, Jaime’s twin sister Cersei was just as cold and calculating as their father and although Jaime’s younger brother Tyrion matched them in wit he wasn’t as vicious or as vile. Jaime however lacked in the mental department but made up for it in the physical. He had quickly risen to a high position in the army despite his young age, an expert in hand to hand combat and marksmanship. Despite his many achievements, Jaime Lannister was honourably discharged following the death of Aerys Targaryan, Jaime’s squad commander, a decorated soldier and member of one of the most prestigious families in Westeros. Some say Jaime stood by and did nothing as he was killed, others speculated that it was Jaime himself that killed Aerys, no one knew for certain what happened that night and Jaime had never made any statements about it.

Brienne was knocked out of her thoughts by Jaime who had returned with two broad pieces of wood and a vine. 

“What's that?” Brienne asked as he approached her.

“I'm making you a leg brace,” Jaime replied as he dropped his supplies next to her. Jaime tentatively positioned the pieces of wood on either side of her leg and slowly raised it to wrap the vine around them. Brienne did her best to help and many minutes later they were successful. Brienne tested out her brace, slowly walking back and forth. 

“It's good,” she said finding it acceptable. 

“Better get going then,” Jaime said walking over to her and extending his left hand. 

Brienne realised what he was doing,

“No, no I'm fine,” she said.

“No, let me,” Jaime said getting closer to her.

“I don't need any help, thank you.”

“Yes you do, Wench you can barely walk.”

“Don't call me Wench and the answer is no.”

“You know you're as stubborn as you are-”

“What, ugly?”

“I was going to say big, but that works too.” 

“I was wondering when you would make fun of my appearance.”

“I've decided to stop pretending that I haven't noticed you're unfortunate physical attributes.” Jaime made sure to stress every syllable of the last three words of his sentence.

“Oh good. Now I can stop pretending like I don’t know that you're a member of the absolute worst family in Westeros.” 

“The worst- I hardly think we are the absolute worst family.”

Jaime and Brienne hadn't realised that throughout their bickering that they had actually started walking further into the jungle and further away from the river. They bickered on and on about all kinds of insignificant things and things that neither of them had any business talking about in the first place. For example Jaime questioned whether she had ever been bedded and Brienne called him “Kingslayer”, the title the tabloids had dubbed him with after accusing him of murder Aerys or as he was more commonly called “The Mad King”.

“Men like you are what's wrong with the world,” Brienne spat at him.

“Well that's where you're wrong Wench, there are no men like me,” Jaime spat back.

They'd been walking for some time now and ever once in a while, despite their arguing, Jaime’s eyes would flicker to Brienne’s bare leg. They were longer than any legs he'd ever seen. They seemed to go on for miles. Brienne wasn't any better, she couldn't help but notice Jaime's perfectly sculpted features and his perfectly sculpted body. His muscles flexed in his gear as he walked and Brienne had to use everything in her to not stare. They were lucky he was so distracting though, because if he weren't Brienne wouldn't have noticed the snake that slithered over his shoe. 

“Stop!” she shouted.

“Oh now you want to stop!” Jaime shouted back halting although he was completely unaware of what was happening.

“Stand still you idiot!” 

Brienne signaled down to his feet and watched the colour drained from his face.

They stood frozen and watched the large snake crawl from Jaime's feel to Brienne’s. Brienne tried to remain calm as the snake slithered up her back and over to her shoulders and on her neck.  
Jaime noticed the panicked expression on her face and how she was close to turning her head to see it slither against the side of her neck.

“No no no look at me,” Jaime whispered to her from across the spot where they stood, “don't look at it, look at me. Focus on me. Don't say a word, don't turn, don't move, just focus on me and what I'm saying. Alright Brienne. Good.”

The snake was still slithering around her body but it wasn't squeezing her or poising itself to bite her. Brienne did as she was told and stared directly at Jaime until she felt the snake slither back down her legs and onto the ground. They waited until it was well away before making any sudden movements. Jaime practically lunged at her and Brienne let go of the breath she was holding. 

“You ok?” Jaime asked standing close to her.

“I fucking hate snakes,” she replied still pretty shaken.

Jaime smirked thinking it wasn't wide enough for Brienne to notice, but she did. Only then did Brienne notice that Jaime’s good hand was resting on her forearm. She looked down at it and then at him. They stared into eachother’s eyes for what seemed like several minutes. Finally his hand slid away and her eyes dropped to the ground.

“We should keep going,” Jaime suggested as he cleared his throat. 

Those eyes. The image of incredible sapphire eyes would now be etched into his brain for the duration of the future.  
They walked for a few more minutes before Jaime spotted something.

"What's that?” Jaime pointed ahead of them.  
It looked like some kind of clearing or field or something. It in fact was a suspiciously perfectly square shape clearing in the jungle and at its centre was something shiny, so naturally they walked towards it.

“It's money,” Jaime realised as he picked it up. 

They had found a perfectly kept single gold dragon.

“How-”

Brienne never got to finish her sentence. 

It was like the ground had opened up and swallowed them because the next thing Brienne and Jaime knew they were sliding down some kind of dirt tunnel. They popped out of the tunnel and onto the hard floor. It was not a good landing and Brienne was sure that if her ribs weren't broken before they definitely were now and Jaime screamed as he landed on his right hand.  
They laid still for a moment and eventually struggled on to their feet. Brienne was the first to notice how well lit inside the cave was and looked around to see torches.

“Look,” she instructed Jaime, “they must have been lit pretty recently to still burn this strongly.”

Jaime agreed and urged her to walk further into the cave with him. There were markings all over the walls of men and beasts. 

“This must be the site,” Brienne realised, “but if they already had people here, why hire us?”

Jaime was about to answer but then they reached a wide opening in the cave. There were supplies, equipment and all kind of things but most importantly, Jaime and Brienne were now staring at the largest fossil she had ever seen. 

"Oh my gods," Jaime whispered.

The spiked spine and and wings were a dead give away as to which animal they were looking at. 

“A dragon,” Brienne breathed out, “it's a bloody dragon.” 

Jaime’s eyes only left the fossil momentarily to eye the equipment around them. They were all adorned with the same red and black symbol. 

“Brienne,” he said just loud enough for her to hear, “I think I just found out who hired us.”


	4. Chapter 4

“Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck shit shit shit shit shit shit shit.”  
That was what Jaime was thinking as he stood next to the most insufferable woman he had ever met, in a cave on a presumably deserted island, after a horrific plane crash, infront of a fucking dragon fossil, and yet, these things had little to do with what was causing Jaime’s manic thoughts. No, Jaime Lannister was seconds away from reaching full on freak out mode because he just figured out that he was hired by the exact same family of the man he had killed all those years ago. 

“The Targaryens,” he said softly, as if he would be struck by lightning had he said it out loud. 

“The Targaryens,” Brienne repeated, “as in Aerys Targaryen?”

“Yup. Exactly like him.”

“So you mean to tell me, that the family of the man the whole world thinks you killed, hired us in secret to travel to an unspecified location to dig up a fossil they had already dug up?”

“Don't take my word for it, look.”

Brienne’s gaze follows Jaime’s outstretched arm to where he was pointing. Immediately she recognized the dragon insignia that was plastered over most of the gear and equipment infront of them. 

“But that doesn't make any sense,” Brienne managed to say through her state of shock. 

“I’m beginning to think that crash wasn't an accident,” Jaime said as he stepped forward to examine the equipment. 

“You think they set us up to die?”

“Well you said it yourself, everyone thinks I killed Aerys, maybe someone’s out for revenge,” Jaime said plainly. He wasn't really interested in their conversation for he was too busy searching through all the things whoever was there left behind.  
There was climbing gear, oxygen canisters, gas masks and tracking gear. Jaime realised if these things were there then there should also be some kind of map. 

Brienne decided to help him and together they searched, him for a map, and her for whatever could help them get home. 

They didn't search for long before Brienne found some kind of custom made tablet. She pressed the power button and prayed that it wouldn't be out of battery life. She let out a little sound of happiness when it did in fact turn on, and that sound was amplified when she opened the unpassword-protected device onto a digital map.

“Look!” she said as she shoved the device in Jaime’s face. He gently took her wrist and directed it and the tablet a few millimetres away from his face so that he could see it better. 

“A map!” he exclaimed. There was even a pin of they're exact location.

“Yeah,” Brienne confirmed. 

“Zoom out so we can see where we are.”

Brienne did as she was told and they finally got a better image of where they were in the world exactly. They were on some tiny island between Westeros and Essos that didn't even had a name. Which means it was probably undiscovered until now. 

Before either of them could say anything there was a loud rumbling from above. Immediately Jaime and Brienne recognized the sound.

“A helicopter,” Brienne said.

Jaime didn't say anything but from the look on his face she could tell that he agreed.

Without thinking on it for too long, Jaime started packing some of the equipment into a nearby gear bag. Brienne realized what he was doing and wordlessly decided to help. 

Voices could be heard coming from the part of the cave they had fell into and with each second the voices got closer and closer. 

Jaime hoisted the gear bag over his left shoulder and to a hiding spot behind a boulder which he and Brienne silently scrambled to. Brienne’s ribs ached as she ran behind the builder and it took everything in her to not wince out loud. They couldn't see anything from where they were but they could hear the voices clearly enough to make out that there were three, maybe four men in there with them. They weren't speaking the native Westerosi tongue so Jaime and Brienne had no idea what they were saying. But if they were able to understand them they would have heard “They must have came hear from the beach, some of the gear is gone.” “We still have no idea which two they are because the other bodies were burnt beyond recognition, so we don't know if one of them is the Kingslayer or both are just the collateral.” 

Then a female voice entered the conversation out of nowhere. This aroused Jaime’s curiosity causing him to dare to peak his head around the boulder. Brienne saw what he was doing and grasped his shoulder forcing him to stop. Jaime gestured to her that it was fine and she reluctantly let go, all the while the people were talking, completely unaware of their presence.  
Slowly Jaime eased his body to the edge of the boulder and craned his neck around it, thankfully the men were backing him and he was able to conform his suspicion that there were in fact four men, but no woman. Her voice could be heard again and Jaime realised that she wasn't actually there with them; he saw that one of the men were holding a custom tablet like the one they had found and the woman's voice was coming from the screen. It was too far away for Jaime to actually make out an image so he elected to slowly creep back to Brienne’s side.  
They stayed quiet as they stood together listening to the men and the woman carry out their conversation. Suddenly the woman switched to the one language Brienne and Jaime could understand and what she said horrified them. 

The woman had told her men “Stay put, I'm sending more men to help you find them,” and the blood drained from Brienne and Jaime’s faces as they realised what that meant.

That meant that the men weren't leaving any time soon and neither were Jaime and Brienne.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And the suspense continues


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise promise promise PROMISE to update more ofter from now on

Jaime and Brienne had been standing in a fixed position for what felt like hours upon hours. Jaime’s burnt hand was in tremendous pain but that didn't compare to the level of pain Brienne was in. There was a dull ache in her ribs that hurt every time she took a breath but her leg hurt so badly that she imagined cutting it off would feel much better than this, anything would be better than this. She tried shifting her weight to her other leg but that only alleviated some of the pain, but not enough that it went from being unbearable pain to great discomfort like she had hoped it would. Jaime noticed just how much she was actually hurting despite how much she tried to hide it. He saw the agony on her face and the sweat run down her forehead and soak her shirt collar. So leaned his left shoulder up against her right one and let her press all of her body weight up against his.  
There was never a moment where Brienne was never more grateful for anything in her life than the moment Jaime allowed her to prop up against him. A relieved sigh escaped her lips as she rest her head on his shoulder. They stood like this for several minutes before they once again heard the familiar sound of a helicopter landing. The men in the cave with them gathered their utensils and made their way out to their colleagues. Jaime quietly peaked out from behind their hiding place to make sure that none of the men had remained behind. When he was confident that they were alone he signaled for Brienne to follow him from behind the boulder. 

“We need to find a proper exit.” Jaime said, “How’s your leg?”

“I can manage,” Brienne replied. 

“Alright, good. Let's go.”

“Wait!” Brienne unzipped the gear bag on Jaime’s right shoulder and took out one of the custom tablets.

“What are you doing?” Jaime asked.

“Gathering evidence,” Brienne said as she took photos of the gear bag, the equipment and all other items that bore the Targaryen sigil, she took a lot of photos of the dragon fossil from many different angles as well. “Done,” she finally said before placing the tablet back into the gear bag. 

“Come on,” Jaime said placing Brienne’s arm around his shoulder, “I think they went this way to an exit.” 

Brienne really was grateful for this man, not that she planned on telling him that, but still, she was grateful that of all the people she could have survived a plane crash with, it was him. 

Jaime all but carried her through the cave, she was a heavy girl, and from what he could tell from her body pressed against his, all of that weight was pure muscle, intriguing. Most men his size would struggle beneath the weight of the full gear bag as well as Brienne, but Jaime’s military training had made him deceptively strong and he was able to carry them both.  
They came up upon a ladder that went up to another opening in the ground above them. 

“You go first,” Jaime said, “I can support you from below and if you fall I can catch you.”

“Ummhmm,” Brienne mused with a smirk, “if your hand touches my ass just once, I'll kick your teeth out.”

Jaime laughed quietly at her threat and held his hand out to help her up the ladder.

Half way up the ladder Brienne while she was reaching for the handle above her, she felt this stabbing pain in ribs which caused her to lose her balance. It appeared as if she was about to plummet onto the earth below her but at the last second Jaime caught her arm in his. He had caught her with his right hand, the burnt one. Realising she had been caught the scream she let out when she fell quickly died in her throat and was replaced with haggard breaths. She stared up at Jaime and saw the pain of using his right hand written all over her face. The gear bag slid down his right arm and onto hers. When she was sure he wasn't going to drop her, she swung her legs infront of her and used her other hand to grab the ladder. Once she was safe Jaime let her go.

“Are you alright?” Jaime called down to her.

“Yes,” she said with a shaky breath. 

Jaime didn't move immediately, her nearly falling had sent a surge of adrenaline through his body and he needed to calm down and adding to that, his hand was in more pain he had ever felt in his entire life. As soon as he was able he continued up. 

The second Jaime made it out the top he reached back in to help Brienne out. He took the gear bag from her and helped her sit. Brienne gripped her ribs and winced in pain. 

“We made it up,” Jaime said and Brienne shook her head in agreement, “And I didn't even need to touch your ass.” 

They both laughed at this joke. 

Jaime looked around and saw that all around them was more dense forest, but he wasn't worried. They had the tablet and knew exactly where they were and which direction to go. 

“Come on, we have to keep moving,” Jaime held his hand out to help her up. 

Brienne was barely upright before the saw something whiz past them and into a tree next to them. They turned their heads so see where it had come from and immediately immediately spotted one of the men from the cave pointing a rifle at them. 

“Run!” Jaime shouted and he and Brienne took off. The man turned around and shouted to the others in their foreign tongue before shooting at Jaime and Brienne again and missing.  
They ducked and weaves through the trees as all of the men fired at them and missed. Brienne ran as fast as she could with her injured leg and Jaime did his best to help. They ran and ran soon enough the ended up at the top of a water fall. 

“We have to jump!” Jaime shouted. 

But before Brienne could say anything he had pushed them both over the edge and they were plummeting to the waters below.


	6. Chapter 6

The water stung upon impact and rushed up their noses but they knew they didn't have much time to worry about discomfort. It didn't take long for the bullets to rain down around them in the water, narrowly missing. Jaime signalled to Brienne to follow him as he maneuvered through the water, and so she did. He led her behind the waterfall where they clamoured out of the water and stood on the rocky area behind the flowing water. Jaime knew the men wouldn't risk jumping in the water themselves so they waited until the bullets stopped and even after that they didn't move immediately. Jaime crept to the edge of the air pocket behind the waterfall and looked up. When he saw no one there he and Brienne made their way back through the body of water and onto the land around it.   
By the gods they were in tremendous pain; sore from the running, sore from plunging into the water and sore from swimming. On top of the soreness was the agitation of their previous injuries. Brienne's ribs were giving her a hard time and she was laying on her back and having difficulty breathing, and inhaling a bunch of water. Jaime put his hand on her cheek to soothe her but Brienne ignored it and told Jaime to check on all the evidence they had gathered from the cave. 

"The evidence can wait!" Jaime snapped at her but immediately realised that that was the wrong thing to do and was about to apologize but never got a chance to because Brienne had landed a blow to his chest and and pulled the gear bag from his grasp. She grimaced in pain as she sat up, panting and ruffling through the gear bag. She took out one of the tablets and prayed it would turn on. When it did, Brienne breathed a sigh of relief and tossed the tablet and gear bag at Jaime before standing. 

"I could two shits if it's evidence," Brienne said, "that tablet has a map of this godforsaken island and that's just what we need."

"Brienne-" Jaime started but was silenced when Brienne raised her hand in dismissal. 

"We should get out of here," she said and Jaime silently nodded in agreement. 

They carefully walked through the jungle, being sure to be as silent as humanly possible. Hunger and fatigue began to set in as time went by. Jaime was getting tired of holding the heavy gear bag but knew he couldn't hand it over to over to Brienne to he just carried on.   
Ever vigilant , Jaime spotted some fruit trees ahead of them and he smiled. He told Brienne but she said nothing. The silence continued as they ate, it continued as they followed the map around the island and it continued as the sun went down.   
It wasn't because she was angry at him, no she was angry with the whole situation. The plane crash, the deaths and now they were being hunted like animals. It was all too much and she was afraid that if she opened her mouth she would just end up shouting. 

Jaime didn't try to get her to talk, not wanting to risk upsetting her and getting into an argument that would alert the men to their location. But he soon grew annoyed and that's how their day ended; with them laying opposite each other in the shelter they built, angry and wishing they had never agreed to take the job that brought them their in the first place.


End file.
